City Council - Regular Meeting

will join in the salute to our nation's flag. Ready, begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening. Roll call and declaration of conflicts of interest, please. Council member Abram, here none. Council member Bixel, here none. Vice Mayor Monz, here none. Council member Phillips here. None. Mayor Bill Black here. None. All right. Approval of agenda is posted or amended. Move to amend item 10B behind the consent calendar. Madame clerk. Second.

Second. We have a motion in a second. We call the role, please. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Manz. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Bob. Yes. Passes on a 5-0. Thank you. All right. We have a Turlock partnership incentive program check presentation. Mr. Sims.

Good evening, mayor, council, city staff, and members of the public. Tonight, we are recognizing Andredy Financial Services, AFS Investments, and owner Glenn Andred for successfully completing the city of Turlock's partnership incentive program. AFS Investments recently relocated both its business operations and the Andradi family from Sacramento to Turlock. They specialize in 401k advising and wealth management services for businesses. The Turlock Partnership Incentive Program is designed to support new businesses uh going into existing commercial spaces. To qualify for the program, businesses must meet several requirements, um not be part of a franchise or corporate chain, submit a business plan, participate in a pre-development meeting, and agree to minor recordkeeping over uh the period of a year. We appreciate Glenn Andrad's investment in Turlock community and we are excited to welcome AFS Investments to our local business community. At this time, I'd like to invite Mr. Glenn Andrade forward for the check presentation and photo opportunity with mayor and council. Mayor, council member, city staff, please join us at the front. You're talking smiles. One more. two. Thank you so much.

Okay. And now it's proclamation week. Chief, you ready? You got a lot of cops back there. There must be their weak. Mayor, this is an important one. Would you join me for it, please? Absolutely. And you guys in the back, the uh police officers who are joining us today, our team that's working patrol right now. Would you come up front and join me as well as Lieutenant Hall? Really, really appreciate you guys uh coming out and appreciate what you do every day. We do.

It's my honor to read this proclamation in honor of National Police Week, May 10th through 16th, 2026. Whereas the Congress and President of the United States has designated May 15th as Peace Officer Memorial Day and the week in which May 15th falls as National Police Week. And whereas it is important that all residents know and understand the duties, responsibilities, hazards, and sacrifice their law enforcement agency makes. And that the members of our law enforcement agency recognize their duty to serve the people by safeguarding lives and property by protecting them against violence and disorder and by protecting the innocent against deception and the weak against oppression and intimidation. And whereas the men and women of the law enforcement agency of the city of Turlock Police Department unceasingly provide a vital public service. Now therefore, on behalf of Mayor Amy Bublack in the entire city council, I call upon all residents of the city of Turlock and all patriotic, civic, and educational organizations to observe the week of May 10th through 16th as National Police Week. Thank you guys. Everybody up and down. Yeah.

Squeeze. Excellent. One more. Two. Perfect. Thank you. Director Fisher,

you got a lot of people up here. Not as good as Oh, man. We'll go without.

Uh, thank you. It's also my honor to speak here tonight. Um, National Public Works Week is an opportunity for us to recognize the dedicated professionals who maintain and improve our the infrastructure and our essential services um throughout our community and the things that we depend on every day. Um, public work team play a a vital role in protecting public health um not only the safety and the quality of life through our maintenance and operations of our streets, our water systems, the our storm drainage, our public facilities and other like critical infrastructure that we all rely on every day. This year marks the 66th annual National Public Works Week and it's sponsored by the American Public Works Association. And this proclamation is meant to recognize the hard work and commitment of the public works professionals at all levels from our field crews, maintenance staff, engineers, technicians, operators, and administrative personnel that all support what we do every day. Um, their work really happens behind the scenes and often times it's we don't even think about it. We just we just realize that when we turn the tap on there's water there and we flush the toilets and it it doesn't back up in and you know those are the things that you know that we that we appreciate and sometimes we take for granted. So I think this is a great opportunity for us to recognize them and also serves the opportunities uh serves as an opportunity to encourage um our community to learn more about what we do and their you know um and and what kind of impact that we have on their daily lives. Um so I want to thank you to the mayor and and the entire city council for always supporting us. um there's a lot of things we do and it takes you know it takes a village you know to to support and do all the things that we do. So you know I'm really proud of the team and I always like really like coming up here for this week. Um so therefore it's my honor to read this in national in honor of national public works week. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities and services that are vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to public health, high quality of life and well-being of the people of the city of Turlock. And whereas these

infrastructure facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers and employees and all levels of government and the private sector responsible for rebuilding, improving and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, solid waste systems, public buildings and other structures and facilities that are essential for our citizens. And whereas in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders and children of the city of Turlock to gain knowledge and maintain ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works and the public works programs and their respective communities. And whereas this year 2026 marks the 66th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by American Public Works Association. Now therefore, the mayor of the city of Turlock does hereby proclaim May 17 through the 23rd, 2026 as public works week in the city of Turle and calls upon all residents and civic organizations to acquaint themselves with the issues involved with providing our public works and to recognize the contribution of public works personnel make every day to our health, safety, comfort, and quality of life. Thank you. And I'll take this back and hang it on our wall with next to the other ones. All right. And now we have some cards for public participation. This is time set aside for members of the public to address city council on matters that are not listed on tonight's agenda and that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council. We'll have three minutes and there are two identifying three minute counters. Uh I do have a few cards. I have one that doesn't say whether or not they are for something on the uh agenda. So I believe

it is by the virtue of it saying Countryside Drive is the address. So Deborah, are you waiting for the agenda item? Deborah. Deborah. No, no. Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Thank you.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. So, I have one uh Milt. Good evening. Uh Milt Treeweiler. I was born in Turlock and I live here in Turlock. It's bad for the Turlock residents to have a Modesto Fire Chief replace our Turlock fire chief. Let's look at the facts. We know there's a lack of consistency and stability and leadership with the Modesto Fire Chief in charge. At the last council meeting, I pulled consent calendar item 8N and was told that it did not apply to the deputy fire chiefs for Turlock and was for another position. In the discussion, it was revealed that the current deputy fire chief of Turlock will be replaced in June. Today, we have had four different deputy fire chiefs assigned to Turlock. In June, next month it will be five. Besides that, we've also had three different Modesto fire chiefs in Modesto over the past four years running our fire department. Is this good for us Turlock residents and our Turlock firefighters? No, it is not. It's a danger for all of us who live here in Turlock. Remember, this deal with the fire uh fighters was made in 2021 during the height of the pandemic. With Modesto in charge, our Turlock fires have no say in the decisions that are being made here by Modesto on how the Turlock Fire Department will operate the department and how the Turlock fire uh Turlock is running its own fire department tactically. Several times the Modesto Fire Chief has called out Turlock fire trucks to Modesto, leaving just one Turlock truck to cover all of Turlock for two or three hours at a time. In one instance, Modesto pulled all the Turlock firet trucks from Turlock at one time. This would have

never happened if we had had our own Turlock fire chief. Think of what would happen if one of your loved ones had an emergency and someone else had a fire during this time. You may have lost a loved one. Turlock is also losing the man we train. We have lost uh these firefighters to Modesto. It puts a strain on our Turlock firefighters because it makes the Turlock Fire Department short-handed. When the fire department is short-handed, our city has to pay overtime to fill the positions for our firefighters to be fully staffed at all the stations. Thus, it costs Turlock more money to do this. With Modesto in charge, we have no control over these costs and how we operate here in Turlock. The fire services agreement between the city of Modesto and the city of Turlock is not good for Turlock residents. We want our own Turlock fire chief and we have the money to do that with measure A. Thank you.

Anyone else who did not fill out a card who wants to talk on just this? Yes. Go ahead. Come on. Mayor Council, I'm here to talk about week. I got robbed and mugged Friday morning. Don't like it. Anybody remember these cards? I get handed this at Weare when I was over there before I got threatened up. Told me to evade ICE. I'm a veteran of 10 years. Two honorable discharges. I'm about up to here with the weak air staff. I'm now living on a park bench. Have been since I got kicked out. not kicked out, threatened out. I had the PD come out. They were no help. I said, "Look at the film." They wouldn't look at the film. I don't know what's going on there. So, I went to Modesto and this is pretty little gross bed bugs. Took me two and a half 250 bucks to get rid of them. Hotel come back to WeCare. I didn't. I'm sleeping on a park bench. A veteran, let me tell you. And I got proof. They're smoking dope inside. They're smoking crack inside. I got proof. I'm up to here with it. Something's got to be done. Chief. And there's a BMA on the outside. You know who it is I'm talking about. I don't care who I don't care who knows it. Dealing Dope. I got robbed. I got the pictures of the guy that robbed me. I had to go get them myself. took my backpack, everything I owned, wallet. Been a heck of a time getting my stuff back. I don't have any money until I get my cards back. Something got to be done about week. I'll tell you what can fix that. Bring some veterans in to run that place. That'll cure it. I got the veteran

standing by. I will run that place. My culinary experience will run that place. I volunteered to run that pl run the culinary note. Now Eddie got fired from over there and I told you so. Something was going on. Eddie got fired. Anybody know that? The guy that was running it from Mexico with a green card from a guard to staff. He gets fired for m I don't know what he got fired for. He should have got fired for illegal aliens running them through there. And I got witnesses saying it happened all the time. Let's do something about it. And this card was given to me telling me to avoid ICE agents. the lady that still runs over volunteers over there. I'm a veteran. You're going to give me this and told me that. And at the same time they told me this, they're getting a grant. They're getting at the time they had grant money coming in. So, you got your hand out for a grant and you're telling me to avoid the government? That's crap. Sorry. Let's do something about it. And I apologize for my appearance. I haven't had a shower in a week and I'm living in 229 West Main Street. Come by. I'll talk to you about it. and you come by to make me harm, it won't be good for you. But if you come by to be cordial, I'll talk. But I'm sleeping on a park bench. Shame on him. That 24 year old over there, Caden with Bill, he messed with my food. I'm a little tired, but thank you, city council, and the members of the chief. Appreciate it. But I'm up to here.

Anyone else who did not fill out a card who wants to speak just in general, not about the Good evening, Mayor, council members. My name is Brian Raymond. Uh I'm the new district rep for Senator Marie Alvarado Gil, and I'm here tonight just to give you a brief update on the senator's legislative package and how it is uh supporting communities like Turlock. I think my name's Brian Raymond. I don't think I said that. It's my it's my second time doing this, so you got to bear with me a little bit. All right. Um, this year the senator's legislative priorities are focused on public safety, affordability for working families, agriculture, and community resilience. Several of these measures are currently advancing through the legislative process. Most recently is uh SB1234, also the ABC, accountability before custody. SB1234 ensures that when courts require drug testing prior to child reunification, that fentanyl is included in the testing panel. This measure is designed to strengthen safeguards for children and support safe reunification decisions in response to the growing fentanyl crisis. Uh the status of it as as of this moment it is passed out of the Senate and is currently awaiting referral to a policy committee in the assembly. Uh she has also put forth legislation which is a fire and resilience legislative package. Um this is also advancing uh it's a package of bills which is focused on wildfire uh preparedness, energy reliability and uh insurance stability. These uh these measures aim to improve emergency preparedness, stabilize insurance markets, and reduce long-term cost pressures for uh residents across California. This is currently uh on the appropriations suspense file and is awaiting outcome uh from the appropriations committee on Thursday. Uh in closing, the senator's legislative package uh focused on practical community- centered solutions, improving public safety, supporting agriculture,

and helping families manage the rising costs that we face these days. We appreciate the partnership with the city of Turlock and look forward to continuing to work together uh to support our residents. Thank you. Anyone else who didn't fill out a card?

Well, I think Brian teed me up pretty nicely. Um evening everybody, mayor, council, city of Turlock. My name is Karth Prasad here on behalf of Congressman Adam Gray and here to give my usual report card submission for all the stuff that's going on in Washington. Um, so it's kind of meaty this time. Late last month, uh, four of the bills that the congressman worked on passed through the House and are currently on the Senate floor. This includes the farm bill, which has been a long time coming as it's a legislative package that's supposed to be passed every 5 years, but the last farm bill was passed in 2018. Uh, so we finally got around to getting it through. uh for those of you who don't know is a comprehensive legislative package that covers a whole host of uh programs and supports for everything agriculture related from fresh fruit programs to educational opportunities. Uh this year that bill is the farm food and national security act 2026 and during markup the house agriculture committee unanimously passed three of the congressman's amendments. One of which would allow uh would require the USDA to report to Congress how changes to the US Mexico Canada agreement would affect the agriculture industry. Uh second one would allow states the flexibility to allocate up to 20% of their emergency food assistant program funding uh toward the USDA's fresh fruit and vegetable program. And the last one would help protect specialty crop growers uh by uh prohibited prohibiting the USDA from uh implementing uh cost sharing measures and uh matching requirements. Uh three other bills that were passed were the uh bipartisan heats act. It's a bill that would exempt geothermal activities on state and private land from federal drilling permits. This is a huge part of our ongoing effort uh regarding permitting reform which I know everyone here is very well familiar with how uh bit of a pain in the butt the federal uh permitting process can be. Um he's also co-led the fire act which which requires the EPA to exclude data that's used for determination of the national ambient air quality standards if a state demonstrates that an exceptional event such as a fire or prescribed burn as the cause of that increase. And uh lastly, the congressman helped pass the teleahalth network and telealth

reauthorization centers grant program reauthorization act which is a whole mouthful which was actually introduced onto the house floor last May um and finally made its way through and it's on its way to the senate. It's a bill that would provide investment rural healthcare by reauthorizing the telealth network and tele health resource centers grant through fiscal year 2030. Uh so that's my report for this time around. As always, if any members of the council or members of the public have any questions on any of these bills or any problems with the federal government, feel free to send them our way. Thanks. Problems in government? No. Anyone else that is not pertaining to another item on the agenda? Okay, let's close the public comment. Move on to city manager report and updates. Anything, sir?

All right. Nothing that's not already submitted. Okay, so now the public may comment on the consent calendar. This is the opportunity to comment on consent calendar items. comment not question or request an item be removed through a separate consideration of one of us. So uh at this time is there anyone who wants to speak uh a comment about one of the consent items. Okay, I'm going to close that public comment and move on. Move to approve the consent calendar as written. Second motion in a second. Call the role, please. Council member Abram, yes. Council member Bixel, yes. Vice Mayor Monet, yes. Council member Phillips, yes. Mayor Buck.

Yes. Passes on a 5-0. Uh, now we move to 10B, which is uh the consideration of denying or approving the appeal and granting conditional use permit for the food trucks on Fulk Earth Road. So, the applicant may come up first and they have 10 minutes. Madame Mayor, pardon me.

Uh, can I go ahead and give a little preamble to on on this item? So, uh, what is before you tonight is actually an appeal of an action by the planning commission and staff has a presentation, so I won't jump into the specifics of it, but just wanted to give a little bit about your role in an exparte hearing. If you had communications, you're acting in a quasi adjudicator capacity. So, you are neutral decision makers. What's going to come before you is evidence, testimony that's presented. You then have to apply that testimony to the findings that need to be made. and that will be presented to you tonight. So, there are two options of resolutions that were prepared in the staff report and based on the findings and council's decision at the end of this meeting, you'll either uh decide to uh approve that appeal, which it was an appeal of the denial. So, you would then be approving the project basically, or um deny the appeal and leave the denial in place. And to do that, you need to point back to those findings. So that's where I just wanted to flag for council that it all has to be back to those findings in place. But I'm available to help through the process if we take.

And just one more item um regarding exparte communications. I do have to disclose that a Mr. David Paul reached out to me on May 7th, 2025 um as the property owner to articulate his support of the project. I received several emails uh to which I just replied. Thank you for your suggestion or your I didn't have any interaction with that. And then of course today I believe we all received something about the applicant would not be here. Yeah, I got that same letter from the applicants who were unable to be here tonight. I also had communications with um the shopping center owner across the street from this project, Mr. Vieira.

Any other I was reached out by their the realer probably I don't know when it was before it was brought to us the last time but I have not heard. Okay, proceed please.

Good evening council, Mayor Vlack and uh citizens of Turlock. Um as our city attorney so eloquently put forward this uh tonight is the an appeal of a condition use permit that was denied at the planning commission. Um I'll just kind of briefly kind of give you we'll just go over briefly what we talked about um a year ago. Um the project is located at 2400 Fulkarth Road kind of at the intersection of Countryside and Folkarth just south of Folkareth Road across the street from what used to be um Del Taco but is now Starbucks. Um the property is 1.3 acres and it's own community commercial. So the current zoning as I said for the property is community commercial. It is surrounded by um commercial zoning um to the south to the west and to the north and to the east is a residential subdivision. So just to kind of give a little bit of history to kind of uh remind everybody where we're at. Um in uh March of 2025, the um planning commission heard the project at their March 26 or March 6, 2025 planning commission. Um at that time, the commission voted one to five to deny the conditional use permit. Um then on March 10th, um an application to appeal the planning commission's decision was received by the city's city clerk's office. So, at that point in time, staff prepared a report to come to the May 13th meeting for council. At that meeting, council heard the project um and heard the concerns of the neighbors and the and the surrounding neighborhood um and chose to continue the um the meeting, continue the project to a future meeting

to um have staff provide more analysis on some of the concerns that were raised during that meeting. Um over the course of the past year, staff did meet with the the applicant to work through some of those um concerns that were brought forward during the during the council meeting. And um with that um on February 5th, the applicant submitted a revised project site plan and we then scheduled for the council meeting. So as revised the project, the the previous project was going to be for 14 food trucks. The um revised project re reduced it down to 12. Um it still has a 40 by 20 covered eating area, a restroom building. Um and the parking spaces were increased to 36. Those the number of food trucks and the parking spaces were some of the concerns that were brought up by council as well as the neighbors. This is the original site plan and you can see the two red arrows are how um you would access the property. um this the the project site through there isn't uh an access road um that leads to not only this property but to the gas station as well as to the commercial properties that are um south of this site just to if you continue straight down that access road. So as revised as the revised site plan shows, they have eliminated uh they have gone down to 12 um trucks that are situated um not so close not as close to the um access road. Um and also reducing the number of trucks has allowed them to um add three additional parking spaces to bring it up to 36. So all the all the all the parking for

the site is on site. So you can see um just the south of the arrow that's pointing to the right. Um there are some parking spaces that are uh that would be face. You would come on site and then face the drive aisle. The new parking spaces are the ones that are right to the uh right of the entrance that's closest to Fulkar. Um and those are the the additional parking spaces that were added once they um reduced the number of of trucks. So the the Turlock municipal code um does it establishes standards for m uh for mobile food facilities or mobile food trucks. Um it has an expedited process um to allow the a food truck on on a private property. Um what we typically see is just one food truck per property. The ordinance does allow it doesn't allow more than one on a on a site that's more less than an acre size um because their uh this project was going to propose more than um one um they had to have a conditional use permit. one of the reasons why they had to have a conditional use permit. The other reason is that mobile food uh parks what where you know this type of establishment or this type of project is not specifically identified or defined in our ordinance and therefore it's not specifically prohibited or specifically permitted. So therefore there's another reason why they would have to apply for the condition use permit. Um the under the Turlock municipal code under section 9-2-124 that's where the the uh the standards for mobile food facilities is located. Those are the ones that you see that we currently have. You see them

that they're specifically different one there's like one truck around town. Um, but the standards for a mobile food facility that is proposed as this project doesn't have any of those standards. But we did kind of take some of those standards and apply them to this property or to this project. One of them being um the uh the number of parking spaces. When we first um a year ago, we typically require, you know, two parking spaces for the food truck. So that's how we came up with the 20 um 8 for the 14 um for the 14 that were proposed at that time. Since we don't have any specific um uh standards for mobile food trucks to have parking, we did do um called around to various cities um in in Santa Claus County as well as Stannis Loss County and Merced County um looking to see what they have as far as parking for their mobile food facilities. What we found was that very typical this is kind of a hybrid. not really something that is is codified in most of the municipal codes. So they have things they they have standards that say sufficient parking um or you know parking that's not going to impact you know the surrounding parking areas. Um the series which they did have um just recently I think within the past year did approve a a similar um food truck park and they parked theirs at two and a half um cars or two and a half spaces per truck. Um as you can see Laspanos also has two two parking spaces per truck. um as revised with the reduction in the number of trucks and the increase in parking spaces, this project now goes to to three um three parking spaces per truck.

Um during the time of the the uh council meeting, um council as well as the residents brought up issues regarding the traffic and um additional traffic that would be um generated by this project. Um and at that time I did speak about the traffic study that was done with the general plan in 2012. And what I kind of want to explain a little bit more is that the traffic study that was prepared for the circulation element for the general plan is prepared for the um the lifespan of our general plan. What it looks at is is land uses zoning which are land uses and what that what those type of land uses would generate as far as traffic at full buildout of the general plan. And our full buildout at the general plan would be at 2030. Full buildout kind of means that we've we've built out all of the our commercial and our residential and what what kind of u traffic analysis would be done to project what would be as far as improvements, whether or not our roads could handle the um the amount of traffic that a full buildout would uh would uh entail. So as part of that, this property is zoned community commercial. So it w it was analyzed as commercial uses and what those commercial uses would generate as far as um traffic circulation at full buildout in 2030. Um the analysis also or an analysis for our general plan also looks at population growth any other any planned uses that we have and the level of development that is expected to occur during that the life of that general plan through 2030. And so, um, projects that are consistent with land uses and development levels

are are assumed in the general plan to be within the scope of the traffic analysis and aren't required to have additional environmental review. Um, that's under what's what we short-term call, which stands for the California Environmental Quality Act. Um, and there's a section in that act that says if your project is consistent with the general plan, then it's considered uh unless there is something um wildly out of um character or something that is going to be significantly impactful, you would not have to do another traffic analysis or additional environmental review um as long as the project is is consistent with the zoning and land use and development standards. So that's the reason why an additional traffic analysis is not required for this site. Um during the um planning commission, they did receive several public comments um in emails and also as as prior to the council meeting, we also received several um comments that we brought forward to you and and the the general um the the general consensus on most of those were the noise, the garbage and trash that would be um generated, you know, the parking and the traffic. Um and as as required in our general in our uh municipal code because the property is commercial and is going to develop commercial and it's right next to properties that are zoned or district that's zoned for residential. They are required to install a 7 foot masonry wall. Um the applicants also submitted a noise study um to uh assess any noise that would be generated by the project. Um the general conclusion of that noise study was that the uh the existing noise

levels um based on the road noise from Fulkur noise road from the freeway that any noise that was going to be generated by this project would not significantly increase the noise levels beyond what is is allowed in the general plan and in the in our noise um ordinance. Um the trash there is a a trash enclosure that is proposed to be um constructed on site and that trash would be picked up on a regular basis by Turlock Scavenger as our as our waste hauler. Um the parking as I said that they did increase the parking um and reduce the trucks. Um and the tra traffic as you know I point out the traffic wasn't analyzed during the general plan as far as this commercial property and any type of commercial uses that would be would be developed on that site. So as we were working through um some uh issues with it issues that were brought up during the the um council meeting. Uh, one of the conditions of approval, um, which is plan, the planning condition number 10 in the resolution is that all activities has have to cease and all mobile food trucks have to be offsite by 10 p.m. Not that they close down at 10 p.m. and then move off site. They have to be shut down and all the trucks have to be offsite by 10 by 10 p.m. and the project uh, and the project gates would be um, secured at that point in time. Um the noise study did identify that that no generators um could be used with the food trucks and again the site had to be closed by 10 p.m. in order to make sure that they are going to meet the noise standards that are identified in the noise analysis as well as in our ordinance. Um the applicants also proposed uh traffic control and to install what called tough curbs um which are the

delineators or the little posts that you would see that would go down the median go down the middle of a full curve. What that would do is what that does is it limits the left left turn movements in and out of the site. So, um, a median is proposed at the point at some point in time in the future. Um, and the median would, uh, eliminate those any type of movements, those left-hand turn movements. Anyways, but the the the applicant had proposed to install the tough curbs at the time that their that they that their project would go in to um now physically um eliminate any left-hand turn movements. Um they've also um said that they would also have a accept a condition to approve to require any type of signs prohibiting smoking um and loud music on site. So that that would allow um any of their um customers and their their operators to know that they can't those are the items that they can't that they can't do on site. Um there is no uh having amplified music or a band or or live music or live music on site is prohibited by ordinance anyways, but they were going to have additional signage saying, you know, no loud music on site and no no smoking. Um the hours of operation also they were concerned with um uh we we were concerned with the noise that the trucks would would generate. So, they were um offering to operate from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. When they redid the site, they wanted to also be able to offer or have the ability to have breakfast service for any um client any customers who were headed out to work or coming home from work and and they'd be able to have um breakfast

service. So, they did want to um have the six um trailers that are furthest away from the homes be able to have service at 6:00 a.m. to capture that um customer service space. So during the planning commission meeting um staff did recommend the project for approval and during the discussion uh the commissioner's discussion they did discuss the traffic the sites access um the site security offensing um very the very much the same issues that council discussed and and that were brought forward by um council as well as the public. Um st the staff did answer that question that conditions could be added to require temporary median installation and require gates to be locked nightly. Um so the the planning commission did not add any additional conditions uh to the project. Um although as far as as far as installing the the temporary median installation, that's kind of what the the applicant is proposing with the um the the stansions or the the little temporary tough curve. Um the motion there was a motion introduced to approve the project and it failed one to five um with the planning commission not approving the conditional use permit. there was another motion introduced to deny the project and that passed 6. Um and at that point in time then within that 10day you know the applicant has a 10day appeal period and they did file the appeal with the city clerks in the aotted time to uh appeal the denial of the planning commission's decision. So tonight, as our city cler city attorney pointed out, the conditions of uh the conditional use permit findings that have to be made to approve the

project are these four. And I'll just kind of go through them and walk through them. And they would be the same um findings that the planning commission had to make um and the council would have to make these same findings. And so that the proposed use is adequate in size and shape to accommodate such uses. all yards, open spaces, wall fences, parking, loading, landscaping, and other features required by the municipal code or the planning commission to make sure such use is compatible with the land and uses in in the vicinity. Um, that the proposed use is related properly to streets and highways to carry the quantity and kind of traffic generated by the proposed use. That the proposed use will not adversely affect the abuing property or the permitted use thereof with the provisions of conditions. and that the site for the proposed use is in conformance with the general plan. Um, as I believe the mayor pointed out earlier um that she did receive some communication, some emails, staff did receive emails um that we provided to you um as a green sheet that we received this morning. So that those were received after the agenda had been posted and already um received by by council. Um so they weren't they are not included in your packet because we didn't receive them till this morning. Um, and with that, I'll take any questions.

Questions for Um, just one brief question because I know we have a lot of folks that want to talk about this. Um, being that this land is zoned community commercial, a restaurant could go here and it would not go through this same planning commission process, city of council appeal. Correct.

Correct. the if a restaurant came in, which is an allowed use in that zoning uh district in the community commercial zoning district. If it came in and met all the development standards in our ordinance, then it would be reviewed at staff level. Um the only way that it would go to commission is if there was opposition to it. Um and then that staff's decision is always appealable to planning commission and planning commission's decision is always appealable to city council. And and just one sort of correlary to that, you know, looking at these findings for me, one of the the issues for us to figure out is uh is a food truck court different than a restaurant? And I'm just curious if you from your knowledge of our municipal code, like if there were a restaurant that had ample outdoor seating, would that still comply fully with the zoning?

Yes. With outdoor seating? Yes. the the Yeah.

Any other questions, director? Okay, we will have the applicant come up for uh 10 minutes. Good evening here and council, uh the city staff as well, public Jim Shaw, the architect, the applicant. Sorry the applicant could be here. He's out of the country and he was expecting a meeting last month, so he apologizes for that. But um we still want to press forward with this project and we're trying to make all the concessions that we can to make it compliant with all the city standards and also um you know be cognitive of the public's concerns as well. So we've tried to do what we can to to kind of uh accommodate and clarify all those conditions and and have the project comply with the code. So any questions? item

questions for that? No, thank you. Okay, the attorney for the landlord as well would like to speak if that's okay. Bring them on up.

Thank you, Mr. Shaw. Uh, good evening, council, Mayor Bublack. And, uh, I see our city newest city attorney here who I've known for a long time, and I say kudos. You made a very good decision. And, Miss Lucasy. Um, Miss Warner, thank you for your presentation on that. My name is Brett Jolly. I am council for the Paul family who has owned the property for uh several decades at this point and is very supportive of the application that is before you tonight and urges you to approve this. They've been working closely with the applicant on it. Um as history, they have owned this pro uh property since the 1980s. It's been zoned commercial that entire time. There have been attempts to develop over the years, including going into the great recession that fell apart. Um, finally in 2019, uh, the Circle K on the adjoining property was developed, uh, next door to this that abutts the freeway. This is the the final piece, uh, empty piece there that, um, we would like to see filled in to complete that puzzle. since we have seen you last uh which was tomorrow uh one year since the last time you were here uh there have been several changes that uh the applicant has worked with with the staff and again I'd like to highlight those reducing the number of operators from 14 to 12 uh and increasing the parking to 36 spaces at three trucks per space um that was based on comments from primarily from the public and some from the deis I believe about concern concerns with uh availability of parking and putting too many trucks on site. So, the applicant went back worked with staff and his architect and reviewed that and and has reduced the operations, increased parking. Uh in addition, traffic control has been added as Miss Warner was describing with new curbs and dividers uh that will help ensure that we do not have rogue left uh hand turns in and out

of the site to help the traffic flow move uh on the site. hours of operation uh have been addressed. Mayor, I believe at the last meeting it was you that had raised concerns about uh the condition requiring closing at 10 p.m., but there was no discussion of uh when the site could open. So concerns were could it close at 10 p.m. and then open at midnight again for the next day. So, obviously, we understood that that was a a hole in the conditions and worked with staff to propose that there will be uh a a 10:00 a.m. start for six of the trucks uh located further back from Fulkarth and then a 6:00 a.m. start for the six trucks closer to Fulker so that they can provide breakfast service as that is something that a lot of these trucks, coffee trucks, uh and other uh food like to do. Uh these these modifications were all developed in cooperation with staff. Oh, I did forget one I wanted to to to address. That's the signage for the no loud uh noise, no music, and no smoking. Um Council Member Montz, you had raised concerns about a uh food truck operation near your work where you would see a lot of smoking, noise, and disturbing activities. Obviously, we don't want that at this location. um the the applicant wants to be respectful of the neighbors and operate a good commercial business at this site. So that was yet another uh condition that was volunteered uh and and not just to have the signs but to enforce that so that this is a good operator in the community. Um so I think these go above and beyond addressing many of the concerns that were raised in the meeting last time by the council and the public. Um, and you know, more to the point, as as was discussed, a decision to approve or deny this project must be based on

substantial evidence in the record. Um, as Miss Warner explained, the project is consistent with the general plan and an environmental impact report and traffic study was prepared for that that looked at the uh growth out to what year? 20

2030. 2030. Uh including development of this site with uh any number of commercial uses such as a restaurant or um could be a food truck project or it could be a gas station or it could be a convenience store. Uh any number of commercial uses at that site. And there's no evidence that this site in any way is is a a use that would exceed what was anticipated in the traffic study in the general plan. So that's been satisfied uh under SQA and uh court cases interpreting section 15183 of the SQA guidelines creating this uh exemption. I think it's also important to remember that the project will bring uh benefits to the city. Those include um the city really showing that it is businessfriendly to small businesses. Uh this is a small business at two levels. It's a small business by Mr. Kellan and his wife who are the uh developers of the site and will be putting significant capital into developing that site. And then it creates small businesses smi business opportunities as well for those 12 entrepreneurs who are going to be want to get into the food service business and maybe they don't have the money to uh get a McDonald's franchise or to open their own brickandmortar restaurant but they can get their start by doing a food truck like this and they can go out into this site. It provides an opportunity for them to do that and in turn uh that does provide increased tax revenue both in the form of property tax and sales tax to the city. Mayor, last time I was here, you asked me, "Do these generate food tax?" And I said, "Actually, sales tax." I said, "I I'm not sure." We looked it up and under the California code, I sent you and and the prior city attorney um information from the state explaining that hot meals are

taxed. There are certain meals that are not, but yes, there is a retail sales tax component to all of these food trucks. In addition, you get to infill uh this long vacant site. Um, not only is that beneficial to completing, as I said, completing the puzzle there in that area and not having a vacant site, but as we know, vacant sites promote trash, homeless encampments, weeds, other things that the Paul family has had to continue to maintain on this site uh as it tries to find an appropriate use for this small commercial site. So, we think that with all of that, the the uh approval should be made for this project with the conditions as it's been modified. We did receive a letter this evening from Countryside Plaza. Um I think it's important to note at the outset that SQA is not a fair competition statutory scheme. The courts have been very clear on that for decades. I say that because we have an opposition letter um from a much larger shopping center, larger commercial site located across the street uh opposing the development of this site in part because it will compete with it ten its own tenant business uh restaurants. Um regardless of that, the letter raises a lot of speculations and innuendo uh but it does not provide substantial evidence uh to support the claims that this project uh is incompatible at this location. Instead, the record has substantial evidence that shows the project is not going to have significant traffic impacts, noise impacts as the noise study referenced by uh your your community development director, or other effects that would support the denial based on what has been put before you. So, accordingly, the Paul family requests that the council approve Mr. Kowan's permit tonight as it is revised and presented to you. Thank you.

All right. I have a couple of uh cards here. So, we'll start with Roberta.

Good evening. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Roberto Burial and I live on countryside in behalf of a lot of our neighbors. Um, first off, uh, I have a sick granddaughter living with me that can't take the extra smells that will be from the different trucks that are back there. Also, we have some uh neighbors that are fighting with the battle of cancer, so we need extra peace and quiet. Uh last weekend, they had at the gas station, they had a big party going and they played loud music. Uh these guys were revving their engines, uh doing doughnut turns. We're really afraid of, you know, things coming through the fence. Uh but my biggest concern is traffic. I've already got people turning around in my driveway and everybody else's driveway because of the traffic that is backing up from the turn in and out of that area uh from the gas station, just the gas station alone and try to make a turn left onto Folkarth from Countryside. Certain times of the day it is backed up and you can't even make the turn. So, I want you to please take all this into consideration. Thank you. Deborah,

now your turn.

I apologize for the remarks. Uh, I live pretty close to where they want to build the toilet. Plus, the land is is not enough land. Uh it was nice that they took out two food trucks and uh gave us three more parking spaces or four, but you know, it's um there's just way too many. And uh it's going to cause nothing but a train wreck on Faulkers with their uh planning that curb thing they want to put in. Uh, and there's only one way in and out. And we're all kind of getting old. Not all of us, but it's just noisy. Um, 6:00 in the morning, it'd be okay for me cuz I'm up, but not anybody else. They're not up at that time. And 10:00 at night and putting a sign up that says no smoking is not going to stop anything. No noise is not going to stop anything. It's just ridiculous that they want to put something in that small acreage with that's so big, you know, 12 food trucks and they're pretty tall. By the time they put all the landscape and everything else they want and try to destroy full curve traffic, it it's just going to be one big mess. And that's my feeling. And uh I thank you for listening to me. I hope that you all deny it. Thank you.

Anyone else who didn't fill out a card that wants to speak on this? Come on up. John, Joe was just sitting down. John Gabaline, I I just had a quick question about Okay, you got 12 trucks. Does that mean that each one of those trucks has a city of Purlock business permit to do that? and and whatever. Uh I I I don't know how it works and I don't know uh if uh if the uh the person that's running the thing is going to have one business license or uh can any anybody who has a food truck come in at any time. I'm just curious on how that works.

Yes. Mil Treewater. Um the question I have which was not covered at all is will alcohol be permitted on the site at all because that would be a disaster for the neighbors if alcohol is permitted. You would never get the place quieted down. It would be a danger for the neighbors and for everyone else. So that's my number one question. Also in the first presentation there were actually three pieces of property on this at this location and you're only talking about two. There's also one to the south that's going to be landlocked. So, how are they going to develop the third piece of property that is bel part of this site when they can't even get to it when they have two businesses in front of that last piece of property? And uh yes, as as the neighbors mentioned this time and also before, it's going to be a disaster for the neighborhood on Countryside because the cars are going to be turning to the right as they leave this and they're going to be turning to the right again to get on countryside, make U-turns like the lady said, go in your driveways and everything to turn around. This is not a good project for that site. Uh maybe with six trucks it might work, but with 12 that's way too many trucks and I think you should oppose this project. Thank you. My name is Edund Veron and I live on countryside also.

Can you lean into the mic just a little bit? Thank you, sir.

And um just this last weekend there was already a party there. Loud music, little tent there, people starting to dance and everything. I mean, what's going to stop it from that happening now when they put the food trucks in? They already got a California burritos there. I think the cops have been called there a few times already the last few weekends. I don't know what's been going on there, but all you see is these flashing lights all the time now. I mean, if you had more food trucks there, they're going to play the loud music. That's not going to stop them. They're going to, you know, do stuff they're not supposed to do. You got the liquor store right there, Circle K. That's going to stop them from going in there and getting beer. You know, it's just right there. the alcohol that's not going to be stop them from having alcohol and food, you know, that's my concern with that. I mean, and then the 10:00, you know, that might work for a while, but who knows how long that's going to last. I mean, it's just a disaster, especially with the traffic. The traffic's already bad there. Very bad. Thank you.

Good evening. Um, I am Joe Vieira, the property manager and owner of Countryside Plaza. I'm also the business owner in Turlock. I own Countryside Laundromat. So, I have a vested interest in this area. Um, so, um, I just want to point out my letter that I wrote had nothing to do with competition. It's all factual. Factual with the Terox City ordinances. So, I just want to clarify that because I don't think someone read my letter. I respectfully ask to deny conditioning use permit uh today that you were speaking about because the required findings under the turn municipal code cannot be made under turn municipal code section 9-5-604 all four findings must be met for approval here several clearly cannot first under 9-5-604A the site is not adequate for the intensity of the proposed use this project places 12 simultaneous food trucks operations within with on-site seating and restrooms on on a 1.31 acre parcel immediately adjacent to homes that functions like a multi-rest destination yet is supported by only 36 parking space. By comparison, brickandmortar restaurants in Turlock are required to meet much higher parking standards under chapter 92- article 2. When parking is inadequate, impacts are not eliminated. They are pushed offsite into surrounding streets and neighborhoods and shopping centers. Parking is for a restaurant and similar use would be one per 100 square feet of floor area or three to four per seats in that restaurant. Second, under 9-5. 604, the city cannot find that the street system can carry the quantity of cars and traffic generated. And on top of that, when you uh add Uber and Door Dash that's going to be going there, get picking up food and in a nightmare with the traffic. Third, under 9-5, it would it will adversely affect adjacent resident properties. Even when with a permanent outdoor high turnover food, this brings ongoing noise, lighting, traffic, and activity next to the homes. This record requires no adverse effect, not partial

mitigation. Finally, this project exceeds the intent of 9-2-124. If they were go putting one food truck here, we wouldn't be talking about this today. They could do it under that code section. Conditional use permits are discretionary for a reason because their required findings cannot be made. I respectfully urge you to uphold the planning commission's denial. For example, I mean I I have a question for for uh this was originally going to be at Starbucks at one time. I know it was denied. How many parking spots would it would with Starbucks would have been required to have approximately in that location if Starbucks would have gone there in comparison to what we're what we're doing here? um because I'm sure it would have been a lot more than 36. Um but with that um I think that I I urge you to deny this uh continue to deny this appeal and it this does not work for the location. Thank you.

Is there anyone else wishing to speak on this item? Yes, sir. Come on.

Hello. Respected councilman's good evening all of you and uh my name is Harprit Sumal and I'm strongly in favor of this approval because this lot is zoned for a commercial and uh I'm feeling very bad for the seller who can't sell our property because of whenever any buyer shows interest to buy this property always city refuse lose cause of neighborhood because this project okay I was going to buy this prop property to to because I had a Starbucks uh letter of intents and uh and I called planning department they say sorry you cannot because of you have to make the drive-thru and you cannot make the Starbucks here and after that I was planning to open a car wash and they refuse again. And so like just imagine if a landlord has a hardship and he need money immediately and uh he want to sell our assets as soon as possible. he cannot sell because of all these uh people who uh oppose this project. And uh there is not easy to find a qualified buyer for this uh commercial property because this is uh um cost around $1 million. And uh if if neighborhood still not let anybody to buy this lot just request them all of you guys gather money and pay to the seller because seller can sell our property and uh and he can he he he be happy and you guys do whatever they want to do with property. So, I'm strongly in

favor of this project and please consider about it. Anyone else? Okay. I'm going to close the public comment. I'm going to ask you to answer some of the questions and I'll let the uh applicant have uh five minutes to say anything else.

Okay. So, um one of the questions were u are the food trucks required to have a business license and permits? They are. So each uh each all 12 food trucks would have to get their own business license and they would also have to get a uh the permit the food facility permit through the planning department. Um then uh Milt asked if there if alcohol was involved. No, there is no alcohol that's going to be served. They would have to have an ABC license. Each truck would have to have an ABC license. They would have to go through RPCM process. Um and it's something that um it would be governed by ABC as well as our police department. So that's that that's not proposed. Um the Mr. Vier talked about the the Starbucks and a restaurant. Yes, a Starbucks or restaurant could be proposed on um Oh, let me back up. Um Milt did ask about the property to the south. Um I brought this diagram back up. What you're not seeing is that the access road where the red arrows are, it goes all the way back to that that uh south property. So, you don't see it on this m this map, but it continues all the way down. Um so, the property that's to the south is not landlocked. There are, I believe, two or three other properties. um one that's south of this one, one that sits right in the middle of that access road, and they're all um they all have access to drive in through this access. So, there is no landlocked um parcel. Um a Starbucks or a restaurant. Yes, Starbucks, restaurant, um grocery store, hotel. Um those could all be um uh built on the commercial property. Um, the reason we did not receive a formal application for Starbucks um or the car wash because we do have standards for

drive-through restaurants. Um, and drive-through restaurants have to have their drive-thru aisle or lane has to be 100 ft from um a residential zoning district. So, the residential zoning district is that property line that is uh abuing the commercial and the residential. So that drive-thru has to be 100 ft away. So when you measure the 100 ft, the the for the drive-thru, the drive-thru is now in that access aisle. That's why the project could not go forward because they could not meet the standard for the drive-thru. Um the same thing with the car wash. Um car wash has a drive-through lane as well. Um I'm sorry. Um and uh that was another reason. So we the the planning department never received formal applications. they did meet with the planning department and we did um give them those standards and and they could not meet those standards. So that at that point they did not go forward with any any type of application. Um as far as the number of parking spaces for a Starbucks or a restaurant, a hotel, we do have that is governed by our municipal code. Um and for a restaurant it is one parking space for every 100 square feet of gross floor area. Um, it also requires three, if you know the number of seats, it's one space for every three seats. But if you don't know the number of seats, which we typically don't because at at the planning level, we don't always know um who the applicant is or who the tenant is. Um, so we're looking at square footage. Um, so that would be one per 100 square feet of gross floor area and it's based on that gross floor area. So I can't without knowing the size of the business of the Starbucks or the restaurant. That's how I'd have to calculate the parking. So, I can't I couldn't tell just, you know, a Starbucks with a drive-thru is has to have five parking SE because I don't

know how big that Starbucks is. Um, I believe that those were the rest. I'll just kind of address that event that was at the gas station. I too saw that on Saturday when I was driving up to Modesto. Um, just to let you know that the the city didn't know anything about that event. We would not have permitted that event. Um, so they didn't uh there are a lot of times that those popup things pop up. They pop up on a weekend when staff is not here. By the time we know about it, it's Monday and it's over. Um but the as I said before there would there is not a loud music or um uh amplified music you know a band or anything like that is prohibited and they would not be able to have that on site. So, Director Warner, would would who would police the no smoking, the no alcohol, the only being uh 6 in the morning, uh six of them can work? Who polices that if they're not the owner's not there?

That would be that would be code of course. So, it would be the planning department and in probably in conjunction with the with the police department. You guys come in at 6? No. Um but it would be it it would be

hours. It would be once we received a complaint that that they are on site earlier or they are smoking or those things are done, then we would contact the um the property owner, the the operator and and let them know accordingly that um that their that their operators are violating that not only their condition permit but also the municipal code. Um and if it continued that way, then we would take them through the administrative citation process. Other questions for the director?

Um on the topic of the you know proposed no smoking modified hours and the I think importantly the tough curb what are we calling it the median. Um I perhaps I missed it but I don't see that in our our sample resolution. So should that be something that needs to be addressed? Does it do we need to codify it in in this?

Yes. So at the what the conditions of approval and the resolution are from our engineering department. The the um the suggestion of the tough curb was from the applicant when we were having discussions with them. So that is that is their um concession to trying to mitigate some of the the concerns that the neighbors had regarding um traffic. So yes, that would have to be added condition um in the resolution. All right. If there's no other questions for the director, then the applicant can come back up. Is that going to be Mr. Jolly?

Again, Brett Jolly on behalf of the um the I'll call it the applicant team here as council for the landowner. Um thank you to Miss Warner for that comprehensive um rundown. I I do want to also applaud her. She and her staff have been very helpful over the last year in trying to work out some solutions to bring this back to you and she's been a pleasure to work with. So, so thank you to her for that. In terms of some of the questions that were asked, uh, one question was whether there would be alcohol sold on site. Uh, to my knowledge, it's not proposed as part of the conditional use permit. And if the, uh, applicant wanted to do that, it would require a modification of the conditional use permit and a license from the state. Um, and so that's not been proposed at all. That's not part of the project. So, the answer is no. Um, regarding that party on the vacant lot, I would like to stress on behalf of the Paul family, they no longer own that gas station parcel. That is now owned by a third party. Uh, but, uh, quite frankly, taking, uh, or allowing this project to go forward will actually see development of their vacant lot, which will include fencing that will be locked after 10 p.m. at night. Uh, you will have activity on site leading up to that. Um but actually having development there will help prevent those types of activities on what is now a vacant lot regarding uh basically what's what's going to happen if they don't um comply with the conditions for noise the ordinance standards. Uh your director can address me if I'm or can correct me if I'm wrong or or perhaps your city attorney. Most ordinances do include a revocation process for a conditional use permit if it uh is deemed to be substantially out of compliance. I've seen that happen in other locations. So, uh if it it happens that there are conditions placed on this and it is not

uh the the operation is not abiding by those conditions or the ordinance that this can be brought back for a revocation hearing and the the uh property owner can actually lose its conditional use permit. Um the access to the back lot, it's not landlocked. As Miss Warner said, there's actually a recorded access easement that goes all the way back there. Um in terms of the comments from Countryside about the adequacy of the parking um of one space for every 100 ft square feet. Uh here the the seating is 40 by 20, so it's roughly 800 square feet, which comes out to about four spaces per 100 square feet. Um that said, staff has worked with trying to come up with what is a reasonably anticipated number of spaces and originally agreed that two and a half appeared to be sufficient based on their analysis. We've bumped that up to three spaces per uh truck. So I think we've got uh absolutely ample parking uh on the site right now. Uh and the way that that site is set up, it's it's highly unlikely that people are going to rather than uh bypass that if for for some reason the parking is full, drive around and park on countryside and then walk several hundred feet back to the site. I think um that there's just no evidence that that's going to happen and I think there's adequate space on the site. So uh with that, we would urge you to uh approve this application and uh allow this project to go forward as as modified with the conditions as uh council member Abram pointed out were not in the resolution. Uh we would uh Paul family supports adding those to the uh the conditions of approval and the resolution for the project. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Bring it back to uh have some discussion here. Um was there anything that you needed to finish with? You good? Okay. Council, anything? You good? Okay. All right. Um who wants to start? Oh, let me do it. All right. So, uh, knowing that the the traffic engineering was done in 2012,

um, and knowing that we are behind in two just just north on on countryside, we have two, uh, signals going in pretty close right by a little right after IHOP and then right there by Chungs. And then, wait for it, as soon as they start the building any more other larger anchors, you're now going to have another one. I can't remember the street there. Is it Shelley? Right before Chick-fil-A is going to be another one. Oh.

So, that traffic's going to really bog down anything coming any other way. Uh, which the the general plan wouldn't have known. Um, so I get that, but we're saying number four is that conforming with the general plan, but the general plan's about at its its end. So I worry about that and as well knowing that the farm the fairgrounds beyond just having the fair we have many events there and they usually always come straight down folk earth and so that makes it kind of convoluted. So I personally number two I I feel like we're just we're not going to meet the traffic there and um those are my values.

Um I'll jump in. Um, so, uh, I just want to say as a small business owner, I understand how hard it is to start and grow a business. So, I just wanted to put that out there. Um, my concerns are still traffic, um, congestion as well. Um, and so, it's just I don't know if it's a right fit for this scale of of operation. Um, so it's just kind of like a I with that I just I cannot support the project in its current form. So, So, when I drive up countryside from Mayfair to go to Walmart, I have to sit through the light at least twice, sometimes three times, depending on the time of day. And I don't know which house is Debbie's, but I've actually been sitting at that light and seen people pull in two driveways and back out and then go the wrong way down the road because they don't want to be forced left onto countryside from Folk Earth. I understand the general plan is nearing its end. I don't believe that any of us ever believed that Mona Vista Crossings was going to boom and be what is it the number three in the country or something like it's astronomical.

Don't get me wrong. Um I'm a big fan of Jim Shaw. He's my favorite architect in town. But the way th the way this is going to adversely affect my residents that live there on countryside. I I I I we can't we can't meet I can't meet these findings. And I know it's not a legal finding, but I know my Circle K up front there has an ABC license, and I know you can walk in and buy a six-pack of Corona and go right outside to the outdoor seating area, and then that man's officers over there get bogged down with all the cults, right? It there's no way this is going to work. Nothing has changed from when the applicant was here a year ago in my purview with the exception of reducing the trucks by two and adding some additional parking places and some some conditions and stipulations here and there. The impact on the surrounding community is still going to be very negative and I can't support your project. Um, you know, I'd just like to chime in that I I'm very appreciative of all the people that have come to speak about this and I I very much understand the concern of having this type of development uh budding your backyards. Um the reason that I um I I do think that the council, you know, we cannot I'm trying to think of how to phrase this with the negatives here. Um I I think the findings of this up um we should uphold them because you know the traffic there is bad and um you know if you go through to I think it's like the second to last page of our general plan and it it you know projects what the traffic's going to be there it

projects it's going to be really bad and so which is kind of surprising. Um, but for me, I can't quite see how this is much different than any other land use that is consistent with the general plan. Um, so even though the traffic is bad and even though there will be some noise, I I don't think it's much different than what staff could approve um there with the type of zoning that it is. Um, so I I am in disagreements on that for those reasons. Yeah, I would um I certainly sympathize with the neighbors. Um I would being a devil's advocate, I' I'd love to know what business you would welcome there. Um I think a you know, two or threetory hotel wouldn't go wouldn't go well. Um, you know, if you wanted to put a a a medical facility in there, you'd have a lot more traffic than you would have from from um, you know, taco trucks or food trucks. Um, the traffic is a mess. I mean, and it's only going to get worse as Monister Crossing, you know, develops. And um it's you know I have sympathy for the the property owners. I think they've got something that's going to be very difficult to get anybody to you know to fully support and that's a difficult position um you know for people that have been good to the city for a long time. So I'm just like I said throwing that out there.

Okay. What is the will of council then? Motion to deny the appeal and uphold the planning commission's ruling. Did I say that right? Because this feels like a double negative. Yes, that would be correct. There's a resolution you can say a motion to approve the resolution denying the appeal and upholding the planning commission. And then if you wanted to site to a specific reason why the findings can't be met, we can incorporate that as well. Sure. For me, so is that one of the four criterion? Correct.

To deny, you need to site to finding um a reasons why the findings can be made that can be incorporated in writing into the resolution. Two, two, three, and four. Okay. Second. All right. We have a motion and a second. We call the role, please. Council member Abram, no. Council member Bixel, no. Vice Mayor Moness. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor BL.

Yes. It uh affirm that we are keeping the uh planning commission's findings. So, thank you for your time. All right. Moving on. Final readings. None. Public hearings. We now have housing. Jennifer, you sat through this whole thing. Good evening, Madame Mayor, members of council, and members of the community. The item before you is a request for a resolution of concurrence with the Stannis Loss Home Consortium fiscal year 2026 2027 annual action plan. The Stannisos Home Consortium was established in 2000 and is comprised of Stannislos urban county which includes the cities of sir, Houston, Newman, Oakdale, Patterson, Riverbank and Waterford and the city of Turlock. As the current lead entity, Stannislo County is responsible for preparing and submitting the HUD required consolidated plan and Anna action plan on behalf of the consortium with each participating jurisdiction providing a resolution of concurrence for the annual action plan. The consolidated plan is a five-year strategic planning document required by HUD that identifies a community's housing and development development needs, establishes priorities and goals, and outlines how federal funds such as community development block grant or CDBG home and emergency solutions grant or ESG will be used to address their needs. The annual action plan is a one-year plan that identifies how funds will be used to address affordable housing and community development needs consistent with the consolidated plan. It is important to note that the county annual action plan includes home CDBG and ESG funds for the urban county. However, the city of Churlock manages their own CDBG

funds and the county annual action plan only pertains to home funds for the city of Turlock. For the fiscal year 2627, the consortium is expected to receive approximately 1.19 million in home funding with the city of Turux estimate allocation totaling approximately 141,000. The county's annual action plans includes home funding for program administration, community housing development organization activities, affordable rental housing acquisition and rehab, and rehabilitation assistance for owner occupied and renter occupied units throughout the county. Allocated home funds must be committed to an eligible HUD approved project within six months of July 1, unless an extension is granted by the county. If an eligible project is not identified within this time frame, the allocation will be made available to all consortium members through a request for proposal. Staff recommends that the city council adopt the resolution concurring with the Stansel Home Consortium fiscal year 2627 annual action plan. And that concludes my presentation.

Could you just share with us how 1.9 million or whatever and we get 114,000? How how do they calculate those numbers? There's a I don't know exactly. I can look into that, but there each city gets a certain amount of it. Second largest city. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And I don't know if part of it's because we have our own home funds. Could be. Could be. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. We'll open it to the public. Anyone wishing to speak?

Very interesting subject. Uh this was actually the subject of the uh Stannislas County Board of Supervisors meeting this morning and this was definitely brought up to the attention of everyone of us turn attending the meeting and basically before Jennifer was here and knew anything about what was going on. The city of Turlock 20 years ago over 20 years ago had the complete control over the consortium and we were receiving $3.5 million here in the city of Turlock. This was given away by the mayor and her two council members who voted to turn the consortium and the 300 or $3.5 million we were receiving each year to the county. There was no reason for doing that. The county did not want this to happen, but it's a reality that did happen. And so we're in this conundrum. I mean this we don't get any money. I mean asking why do we get the money? because we gave the money away to the county. It was 3.5 we were getting every single year and now that's gone. And you know that doesn't make sense. I'm sorry. It just makes no sense at all. But it happened. It happened. So, um, what is the biggest concern is we still have $5 million of that original funding that we had. And if we don't spend that, every December it f a half a million dollars just goes away. And the county is very concerned about that because we will be losing for the county a half a million dollars of money that could be spent on housing for people who need it. But we have control over it. If we don't turn over that control to the county, the $5 million we still hold will eventually disappear and go back to nowhere. So, it's not going to be spent in Stannislos County that all the supervisors were concerned about

it because it's a mess. It's ridiculous. And I don't know. Well, I know why it was not passed, but that's not something I have any control over. Uh, but so I hope that helps a little bit, but we can't let this half a million dollars be lost to Stannislo County just because we hold the control over that five million dollars. We have to relinquish our control over it so that the other cities in the county can use it. They want the money and they need the money. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, let's close public comment. So that money that was in the consortium, was it our money only?

No, we were the lead entity and so the money can be spent countywide. Correct. Um, we actually are working with a couple of cities to partner with them for a first-time home buyer program. We're also looking at, you know, different options because he is correct. We do have money that is expiring, but we are working diligently like our first-time home buyer to try to get that out to the city. Um, it is difficult because nothing was put in place to spend these funds on the regular basis. So, we are doing our best for 20 years. I'm sorry, never mind. Um, any other question?

And also, we can't give up the funds. We're the lead entity. So, even if we were to give the funds to Stanosell County, HUD is going to hold us responsible for those funds. Yeah. Other questions, remarks, or move to approve. 10 A second. A motion to second. Will you call the role, please? Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Wes. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. May I have the black? Yes. Thank you. Pass on five zero. All right. Item C, municipal services. Oh, James. What a treat.

Wait, wait, wait. You work up here now. How'd that happen? Good evening. Good evening, mayor, council members, Turlock neighbors. My name is James Govern. I am the management analyst in the city manager's office. and I'm joined by Miss Linda Fish in the back who graciously joined me this evening. She's our local landscape architect and she'll be assisting with any questions we have at the end. Um we're here to present some updated street tree policies for your consideration, including the approval of a new street tree list, the approval of planting, maintenance, and watering guidelines, and a first reading of an ordinance which would amend chapter 7-7 of the Turlock Municipal Code Street trees. Originally, we were working on an amendment to chapter 9-2. Article one, uh, called special provisions applying to all or several districts and article two, off- streetet parking and loading regulations, but it was determined that further work was required on that chapter before we were going to bring it to council. So, we're going to not um we're not going to talk about that one tonight. But, as the presentation progresses, you'll see pictures on the side, if you can see them, of trees that we suggest being on our street tree list. So, I just have them as visual aids. Um, so pay attention to those. This is a picture of um a grove of crepe myrtles that's at Stan State. I took that picture myself.

No, no, there's it there. They look bigger in the picture than they than they are in real life. We can go there tomorrow. Yeah,

there are pictures of sycamores later. Okay. Okay. So, when we talk about street trees um tonight, we're not talking about every tree in Turlock. We're we're simply and specifically talking about trees that line streets and sidewalks. Um whether they're in a parkway or they're behind a sidewalk, something like that. Okay. So, these trees provide important public benefits including shade, improved air quality, reduced erosion, noise and glare buffering, and a more attractive landscape. because they're located near sidewalks, curbs, gutters, and utilities. Proper selection, planting, watering, and maintenance are all very important to protect both the tree and the surrounding public infrastructure. So, this item is in front of you today for two main reasons. Firstly, the street tree list we currently have was last adopted 10 years ago um almost to the day. It was the first council meeting in May in 2016. Um, and so it's since it's been 10 years, um, it's always good to look at these things again and make sure what we're planting is is is the best, what we're suggesting is planted is the best. Um, and so and secondly, as the city advances with sidewalk compliance and repair efforts, this is particularly important. Um, we we tal last talked about sidewalks in December and January. Um, and so we want to get ahead of any tree related issues that may be contributing to those problems, right? And make sure that what we're planting and how we're maintaining our trees is is the best. So, this is both a routine update, but also a proactive step. And so, that's what led us in November of last year to hire um Miss Linda Fish, a landscape architect who lives locally, to assist us with all of this work. We wanted her to look at our current street tree list. We wanted her to look at our municipal code and the city engineers specifications and drawings and then suggest revisions to us as appropriate. But we also asked that she produce for us a document that would inform the public and staff about

the proper way to plant, water, and maintain your tree. So in general terms, the updated street tree list that we propose would include trees that are more likely to would not include would not include trees that are more likely to cause various issues um as street trees in our area and would include trees that are better suited to our conditions. We're also suggesting that we move away from the themed street uh requirement which hasn't been consistently followed anyways over time and has some other potential issues. Instead, we want to focus on looking at the available space and site conditions first, which is more practical and easier for residents to follow anyways. And then we would suggest after that reviewing what the other street trees look like on your road as a consideration. So, some trees that we suggest removing from the list, um, we're suggesting so because of aggressive roots, not being overhead utility friendly, association with a lot of litter, um, susceptibility to pests and disease or some other reason. Um, the trees being added were selected because they perform more reliably in urban conditions and have a lower risk of damaging infrastructure. The goal is to improve our long-term outcomes, supporting tree planting and minimizing opportunities for those same trees to then be associated with damage in the long run. And I want to clarify when I say removing trees, I don't mean removing trees out of the ground that are planted right now, right? I mean not planting further trees of this kind, right? Removing them from the list, not chopping them down. Okay, just to clarify. Okay, so here are a few specific examples. Um the first one on the left is the lynen little leaf. Um few examples of trees that we would suggest no longer planting, removing from the list. Okay, so the lynen little leaf is known for producing significant honeydew

damage um from aphids that basically can require almost a pressure washing to clean up and so it's not great on sidewalks, not great beside cars um etc. The big leaf maple is a really beautiful tree. Um, but it's it's considered a repairarian species, which basically means it requires a lot of water, a ton of water. I actually found this one at Stan State right next to a lake. Um, and so it's very happy there. And um, really beautiful. So since it tends to find water anywhere it can find it, it has the um has it tends to to have higher root damage potential, right? And require a lot of water. And then we also have your your sycamore council member, California sycamore. This one's on Marshall. Um, and we have a lot of sycamores in Turlock. They're beautiful. You know, they're iconic. Um, and they're they're kind of nostalgic as well. Um, but in terms of a street tree, planting them right up against curb gutter, sidewalk, and a street, we don't think it's a great fit for the actual street tree list. Um a large tree requires a lot of water and it can grow in a really irregular manner which means that um the pruning requirements um to to upkeep is going to be quite a lot probably too significant for the average resident. So in general our list removes all trees that according to the urban forest ecosystems institute through kalpali are listed with a high water use rating or high root damage potential. So, in total of our current list, we suggest actually removing 14. Then, we'll talk about some additions. So, here are a few examples of trees that we would suggest adding to our list. There's a the London plane tree. This one I took uh this picture. It's right out front of city hall, so you can see it on your way out. Um that one used to be on our tree list long ago. And so, that's why that one's here, you know, long later, doing really well. Um it's a simpler, smaller, straighter sycamore than the California variety. So, it's it's very similar to the California sycamore. It is a sycamore.

It just grows in a more predictable way and it's smaller and straighter, so it works a little bit better right up against a street. This um the next one's a common hackberry. This one um is at Stan State by the dorms there. Um and this one we think is a is a great addition as well. And then the Oklahoma red bud. Um beautiful tree and that picture I just found on the internet. Um we suggest the addition of nine trees to our list. And then there's a group of trees that we think are great. They're already on our list and we think they should stay there. Um here are a few more pictures. The maiden hair tree. This I know the picture is kind of maybe a hundred trees in there. But if you can picture this walkway at the university and there are all these trees along the side that turn bright yellow in the fall and they're really beautiful and everyone goes and takes pictures. That's the maiden hair tree. Um so that one's already on our list and we think it's a great tree that should stay there. the October glory maple. Um this one is by uh the Creek Stand State has a lot of trees, so it was easy pickings to go and find them all. Um my family and I go there a lot. Anyways, so this October glory maple um another beautiful tree. It's a great size, great shade. And then the Chinese pistache. These um these these trees are everywhere in Turlock. You can't really go 5 feet without seeing a Chinese pistache. This one's also right out front in city hall. So in total of our list, our current list, we suggest keeping eight on there. Okay. All right. And one of the biggest takeaways that we've had from this process is that many tree issues come from um how they are planted and maintained. So it's not only which tree is planted, but in how uh how to do so and how to care for it. After that, the guidelines that we um are proposing this evening are meant to be a simple um simple to read, simple to understand public facing resource. They should explain how to select, plant, water, and care for your tree properly. They help create consistency and ultimately reduce

avoidable problems. It helps, you know, helps property owners to comply with our request um for them to maintain their tree. So, the guidelines include sections on how to properly select a tree for your location, how to properly plant it, how to properly irrigate it, and what equipment we recommend you use. Got irrigation schedules on it. It's got monitoring for signs of under or overwatering and other helpful resources um with with other organizations. And then lastly, we're suggesting some code updates as well. And the code updates we suggest are are basically cleanup, not suggesting anything major changing. Um the updates would bring the municipal code in line with the updated list, sort of updating references and things um with the guidelines we're proposing and then removing a couple outdated provisions that are in there and improving clarity. Um maintaining um the existing framework including the property owner responsibility and the permit process for removal of a tree or major pruning. So, if adopted, um we believe these updates are expected to reduce sidewalk and infrastructure damage in the long run and lower long-term maintenance costs and improve the overall health and longevity of the city's street trees. And they also provide clearer expectations to residents, developers, and staff. And so, I I would recommend the approval of all three items. And then, as a reminder, um requesting that the amendments suggested a title nine are not included in your action. and we we continue that to another date in the future. Um that and that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. We have Miss Fish here if there are any questions about trees. If you get any more specific than I got, she'll she'll have to help me out.

Favorite tree, James? I think the October glory maple is my favorite. Yeah, the one by the creek. Questions? Um yes, thank you for your presentation. It sounds like you got some fun field trips in on preparing this. Um it says it in the staff report, but can you say it for the public out loud what the plan is for beyond the education that's happening right now on this change? Um how this information is going to be disseminated and kind of what's the plan for the that angle?

Yeah. Yeah. I actually considered bringing um packets of the guidelines to hand out to the people who came to the meeting, but I thought that'd be too presumptuous, so I didn't do that. Um but tomorrow um I'm going to get it on the website. all of the documents today, remove the draft watermark from everything, you know, assuming that that you're in favor of it. And we would um I would give it to our housing department as a part of the first-time home buyer program. This is how you take care of the trees in front of your house if you have a tree. Um we give it to to recreation and maintenance. We like that permit process because we like it's a no fee permit. So, it's not the city trying to get in the way. It's really just us trying to help. You know, a lot of our staff, they they are highly educated on how to care for for landscaping and for trees. You know, they do it in our parks, right?

Yeah. Casey. Yeah. Um and and so they they then have the opportunity to speak with that homeowner and say, "Let's go out and let's look at what you want to do and make sure that what you're doing is safe and what you're doing makes sense." And they have the opportunity to educate them as well. So, I would make sure that those are at the on the counters and those are on the website would be my primary. And I and I didn't print any today, but if you stay after, maybe I can print one for you. Okay. Let's open it to the P. I'm sorry. Did Did you want to speak? Yes. All right. I just didn't want you to come all the way down here for nothing. All right. Let me open it to the public then.

Good. I'm going to give you some questions on specifics, but I'll face the council. Okay. Number one is the worst tree in Turlock is the fruitless malberry. Not only does it it's totally evasive, the leaves never fall off in the fall until December 31st. So you've got leaves in your yard forever. It it the roots go into everything, your sewers, your lines, your neighbors, wherever. They're all over the place. So I hope that no one will be allowed to plant fruitless malberries trees in Turlock anywhere. Uh, as far as trees are going are be going, you didn't mention any native California trees. And, uh, the one I found find to be the best is the Cenothus uh, variety, Ray Hartman. The Ray Hartman will grow to about 15 feet. I have one in my backyard. It's five years old. It's now about, actually, they'll go over that. They'll go 20 feet high. But the very good thing about him is I have to wa I had to water it for the first five years. Even if it were on the street, I'd never have to water it after the first five years. And I'm not going to have you go by my yard, but I have some other plants in my front yard. I don't have to water them all year long. Right now, they're in full bloom. And I will not have to water those because they're native California drought tolerant plants. I actually got the species in Delporto Canyon. It was along the road and I said, "Hey, I want one of those." They turned out to be very nice. So anyway, um, how many native California are or Okay, here's here's the question probably, James. How are you going to stop people from uh planting the trees that we don't want? And how are you going to get them to plant the trees we do want? And if they have trees that would be like the

centhus Ray Hartman, what are they going to do to be able to plant that tree in their front yard? Thank you. Anyone else?

Bob Puffer. For the record, Milt's right about the fruitless mberry. I dealt with a lot. Um you showed a picture of a California sycamore on Marshall and it said high water high water necess okay that particular tree that you has throwed there has not been watered probably in 40 years if maybe 50 I don't know it's whenever they took out that of the houses to try and build the hospital there. uh when you come up with these trees and stuff like that and you're talking about water usage and stuff like that, did you take into account the state regulations that we're only allowed to water them two days a week? And if you want to have a tree that has something with deep roots, at least to start, you might have to water them more than that to get those roots to start going down. Otherwise, they'll, you know, all trees are going to water wherever they can get it. So, you might start having lift in sidewalks, even even if you're planting something that's not supposed to if we're continually not allowed to water what the tree needs. Thank you.

And John, did you have something?

You're looking at one of the great lovers of trees. I love my trees. That saves me lots of money because it shades my house when it gets hot and everything like that. And they're beautiful. I have a crepe myrtle that's about 45 feet tall right now. But that was uh crepe myrtle uh is a more of a shrub and so you have to prune it all the time into one thing. But it is it's messy. It's beautiful. has beautiful uh uh flowers in the in the winter time and then uh beautiful fall colors, but then it drops all its leaf f and like everything else. Uh the only thing I would say about crepe uh not crepe myrtle but uh uh Chinese pistach I I forget which one is which. Uh but one has berries and one doesn't have berries. Get the one without the berries because they are really messy and everything like that.

That's what I always say. Anyone else? Okay, we'll close public comment. Um, did you want to address some of those? Yeah, I could take some of those and then I might need to call for a little help. I will say right off the top the we do specify the Keith Davyy, which is the one that doesn't drop berries on the Chinese Pistache. Okay. Fruitless Malberry is not on our list. So that's two. And then the sycamore, yeah, requires water. But

yeah, I mean I I had a different picture of a sycamore. Maybe I should have left the other one, but um no, it really with with trees um what we've learned is that it's all in tendencies. You know, they tend to require this, they tend to require that. I don't know about that particular one. Um but when you look around the rest of town, especially in district one, you see the sycamores everywhere and a lot of times we do have some problems near them. So, we're saying let's not persist in that in in planting that sycamore. Let's maybe plant a different one. Right. Can I have you help me with natives? Okay, Linda, you getting called up? Yeah. Sorry.

Sorry. Okay. For the watering, um, in our guidelines, we talked about the maintaining the watering schedule. Maybe you'll talk about the watering schedule and not, you know, not crossing, not crossing against what the city is saying. You know, you can water, we have even addresses can water on certain days. auto addresses can water on certain days and we would the guidelines are consistent with that and and the the irrigation that we suggest as well is is done in a way where it the tree can get the water it needs while still complying with the watering and if you need to say more on that please how to ensure compliance I wanted to say um you know we're we're not we're not looking to to to site anyone that's not our goal at all you know we're trying to make make complying with this easy and we're trying to make it possible for everyone and guide them through the process. That's where the that's why the permit is is is free. You know, staff will just go out and give you advice and and help you out. Um we I I don't think I could guarantee that, you know, everyone's going to plant the trees we say and not the ones we don't. Um but what we will do is, you know, launch public education campaign that that would hopefully, you know, make everyone aware of what the rules are and and what works best, you know. Um, and and I would hope that we would recognize that the trees that we chose and the guidelines as we've written them is is really, you know, we're the same team who worked on the on the sidewalks and and we're trying to make we're trying to address the concern about the trees um and the impact that they can have. And so we're we're trying to help with that. That's the goal. And so I I would want to be seen as partners with my neighbors in Turlock on on trying to solve that. And I'm going to step out of the way if you two have a little list. Hi, council. I'm happy to be here with you. Um, on the native tree issue, and that's a a point well taken. Um, that was I do think there's many wonderful

native trees that I see, you know, planted everywhere, but that was not our highest concern with this project. This project is specifically for street trees. So, it's the the root damage, the regularity, the the minimal pruning needs. Those were the items that are the top of the list. Um, and I agree, Cenus is they're beautiful. They are a little bit messy, probably a little messier than when than what I've put on the list, what we worked with. Um, and they have a shorter lifespan than a lot of the things on the list, but I agree that natives are awesome. They're just not on this list because that was not our highest priority. Fair. Yeah.

Any other questions from Miss Fish? Thank you.

And I I would like to add is the watering the way that we've designed our our watering schedule that it maximizes the amount of water that gets deep root. Um and that's usually through bubblers and not through the the regular task sprinkler systems, meaning we're going to put a lot more water a lot deeper. Um so it's it they can definitely be watered within our current watering schedule. The other thing when it comes down to enforcement, these are these are the tools that we have when we're going through development and engineering projects to hold and then we specify these and these are specifically planted in the pee, you know, close to the to the streets and the sidewalks and the parking strips. So, that's one of one of the things and I do I do want to acknowledge that I think that that we have a tremendous opportunity for education. You know, I think education comes before enforcement. them you know and we looked at we have it's 12page document that you know will tell you how the trees should be planted how they should be cared for and our focus is getting the right trees in the right places that are watered the right way you know and planted you know the you know the right way as well um we also want to increase um our pruning awareness I think that everyone is has seen their neighbors that taken you know and they've taken the malberry and I agree malberry is just like a is a terrible tree but they've taken the m they've taken their Chinese estab ash and improve it like a malberry and you know at that point the benefit that we all receive for you know the work that we put into putting these trees has been lost. Um so some of the things about educating is like we have staff that is that are brilliant at doing these things and you know can we work on a Saturday at one of our parks and hold a seminar that says hey this is how you prune this and this is what you're looking for and you know and not only that it prevents damage you know to the sidewalks infrastructure potentially you know damage to cars when limbs fall if they're not pruned correctly. So, you know, we we we we wholeheartedly recognize the fact that, you know, that that we have a lot of opportunity for education and I think we're going to focus on that. Um, you know, when it comes to enforcement, we have the tools and, you know, if we need to use them,

we will. So, real quick, uh, to whomever, if uh, we have all the, uh, housing on Monav Vista and Walnut, are these going to be applicable to them or have they already been, uh, signed up and they don't have to put their trees? I don't know the status of that project. Oh, Adrian doesn't know. Do one of you know? Good question. Yeah, that project's already been through the approval process and they would have used the existing um the code that's in effect when the application's applied for is what applies to that project.

So any any subdivisions going forward, we would be looking at at the the if you approve this list tonight, we would be looking at that list. Bunch of sick are going. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, you have a question. Yep.

Okay. I was going to move to approve um this with the only the parts of the ordinance that are coming forward. And I just wanted to to kind of echo and throw my support behind what Director Fischer was saying that, you know, reading this and thinking about how great it is to have shade and all the effort and resources that go into making sure we have this plan and then the reality is sometimes those trees just don't ever they're not there anymore, you know. So, um I I think there's a lot of opportunity for education on how to do it right and how to make it easy. And so with all that knowledge, I would I would like to see more of that um really come to fruition in the community. And so you're doing both resolutions and the ordinance. Was that your motion?

I was doing what? Yes, both resolutions and then but the ordinance was not all of the parts. Correct. Just title seven, please. Just tit. So then yes, move to approve the just title 7. the rest TVD. Second. A motion and a second. Will you call the role, please? Council member Abram, yes. Council member Bixel, yes. Vice Mayor Monet, yes. Council member Phillips, yes. Mayor Bubler, yes. Thank you all and thank you, Linda, for showing up tonight. Appreciate you. Okay, passes on 5. And now, money man,

tell us what you know. Thank you, honorable mayor and council members. Just as a recommendation for the ordinance to update for the trees, maybe money trees should be added a little bit.

I I will be happy to water that personally and put one back at city hall. Um so just as a recommendation, maybe we consider that next time. Um thank you. The item we have before you is two actual resolutions. One is an amendment to the measure A policy of how the allocation of percentages to move forward in the next fiscal year of 2627 as well as an amendment to the current fiscal year budget to add an addition of three uh firefighters. So these actions are coming together as an overall exercise to move forward with a proposal to staff our future ladder truck that is coming forward. So on March 24th, 2026, council approved the purchase of a new British ladder truck. Um part of this purchase staff got together as far as looking how to actually implement the truck itself. As we are aware, it's going to take three to four years for this truck to actually come forward. So we need to be able to forward think and look how that overall staffing operation is going to look like. So within your do your documentation that you received, there is a memo coming from the chief gelick to actually propose how this is going to be implemented, what it looks forward to. Um, obviously it is an an aggressive plan of three individuals coming forward each year to try to be able to compensate for that truck as it comes forward. But it also comes to forward is bringing to impacts of overall staffing levels as it comes forward into the next budget cycle. So three individuals will be actually allocated one per shift. What does that mean? So it makes sure that we can ensure staffing levels are adequate going through the bud or through the year but also it reduces overtime to make sure that that impacts the overall budget too. So it does have other impacts not just the overall truck itself. Um so the first proposal about the measure 8 policy as you can see on the screen really helps kind of depicts what the it's just about the numbers. It's about the allocation of the numbers and how it moves. So it is proposing to remove 3% from the roads program um into the public safety and parks. But as you can see as I scroll down the bulk and the meat and the intent of the overall

policy is still intact. We are still focusing on roads program. We are still focus focusing on public safety. We are still focusing on parks. So the meat and the intents of the measure is still intact overall. It's just an allocation change. So we are proposing to do this currently um because of the timing in place it actually takes to get staffing in place. So three individuals is quite a bit. Yes, it is. But it also need to go through background checks, interview process, they have to go through the academy. So public safety as a whole takes time just because of the overall process it takes to go over and move forward. So we're recommending at this point to actually amend the budget for this fiscal year, but we also know there's not really going to be a fiscal impact until next fiscal year when they come on. So it's really talk having earlier conversations due to how the process is going to flow and the aggressive of aggressiveness of what it takes to be able to get there. Um, we're going to continue to have this conversation not just through the budget cycle, but midy year and keep bringing this forward to make sure that the proposal of the staffing plan is addressed and discussed so we can can be successful going into the future. So that concludes my presentation. I will say that there is information within the staff report of what it takes to fund these three positions which is about 339,000. That's did not include future UI or actual overtime in the overall budget. Uh we are again proposing a 3% shift from the roads program into the measure A and there is no impact to the roads program overall. Any questions?

Does that include the equipment? No. Equipment is usually funded through the equipment replacement program. Um so again with the staffing and how they're going to come in there there's not a direct impact but but they do have savings within their programs itself to be to accommodate those that are coming in. Other questions? So the what was 55% of measure A that was going to roads now proposed 52%. Um I apologize that we didn't have an offline conversation about this earlier but um

how how much of that histo the roads portion historically has maybe not historically looking forward will be necessary for the bond revenue debt service like versus how much is actually going into like building a road right now. Yeah. So, so kind of a two-prong question, right? The debt itself, so right now from the debt structure, we issued obviously about 29.5. That debt structure payment is about 2.3 million. So, the annual allocation um proposed in this number would be 7.9 still going to the Rose program. So, there is still adequate space to be able to do another issuance going forward.

Question. Okay. I just have a question. I Isaac, why are we doing this this year? Again, I think with the plan itself, I mean, it's very aggressive. Three bodies going every fiscal year is very difficult to pick up. So, given the allocation, giving it moving forward, but it's also the timeline that we got to compensate for. It's not just money, but putting these bodies in place so that we're successful when it comes. Council has obligated or spent about $2.6 million. That is a large chunk of funds coming going forward into this project. We need to now be forward thinking about what it takes to make sure that that project is successful.

Okay. And how do we make sure so if we if if we give this increase of 3% how do we make sure that money is not being used for overtime? So the budget process will have that overall dollar amount and how it allocates. We also have the measure a committee that has that document in which we correlate to a presentation of where those funds are going. within that document itself. It also outlines the number of allocated bodies within that measure itself so that you can see that that number is constant moving forward. Right. Okay. Okay. Um open it to the public. Anyone wishing to speak?

Okay. As I look at this, I I definitely think that 3% is is minuscule. I mean, we need money for our fire department. We should put in enough there that we could even have our own fire chief. It's ridiculous that we do not have a fire chief when there are many cities that are smaller than us. Uh Selma has a fire chief, Tracy has a fire chief, Mantika has a fire chief, uh oh, I can't uh Terry has a fire chief. Selma has a fire chief. I mean, if these these places can have fire chiefs, we can definitely afford our own fire chief. And it would be much better for the citizens of Turlock. And I just think it's ridiculous that we don't have our own fire chief. It's Modesto is not doing us any favors. They're not saving us any money. It's just politics, I think, for fire chiefs. So, the 3% is no problem. This 3% is not going to affect the roads because the roads growth is because of the bonding. Without the bond, we wouldn't have what a third of the roads we have right now or even maybe half the roads we have going in. The bond is actually focusing. So how much what percent of the roads right now that are going in are there because of the bonding and what percentage are there because of measure A direct funding?

That's that's not pertaining to this. Well, you can ask him offline. That's We're talking about fire right now. Oh, just the fire. Yeah. Yeah, but we're taking the money from roads and people are saying it's bad because we're going to get less roads. People are saying that, huh? Who said that? Well, you're talking about it. We're going to take 3% out of the roads to give to fire. That's what we're talking about.

It's not going to affect the roads that it won't. Just as as Isaac said, it's not going to affect the road program. It will have no effect on that because we still have the bonding to take care of the roads. Um, but we should have our own fire chief. That's all I'm saying. We've had one for years, just like one of our original uh city managers stayed with Turlock for 20 years. Uh most of you may not remember that, but we had a city manager who worked for the city of Turlock as a city manager for more than 20 years. There was a lot of uh good longtime people. We could have a fire chief. I don't know the history on how long the fire chiefs lasted, but they can last a long time. It's just the environment they're working in that's causing the problem. Thank you.

Anyone else? So, it's my understanding now we're making this change if you want to save up for a ladder truck. Am I hearing right or is this all about um new firefighter positions? Fire just the the personnel,

not the truck, not the chief, just the firefighters. Is the $10 million for the new ladder truck being saved at a reasonable rate that when it comes due, the money will be there to pay for it? There was a scing fund uh set up 20 years ago when we got the last locker ladder truck. I guess the silence answers that question. I'm sure we'll answer all the questions once we close comments. Is there any else? It

seemed to me the measure when we came out the hope amongst the people who who did that was that the money wouldn't be used for salaries. And and I know everybody says it's not much and stuff like that, but it sets it continues a precedence and pretty soon there won't be any measure a money left when we need really need it. Thank you. Anyone else?

Okay, we're going to close public comment. Um, of the questions, are there any that you're able to talk to about this topic? Yeah. So staying to the focus of this topic itself, I'll just reiterate there is no impact to the overall roads program. That's the biggest thing I can stress. Although 3% is seems like a small amount, there is a large impact overall on how this overall program works. I will say that it has been compensated and dealt with and so I think there's no again no impact overall. Um the latter track was a methodology of discussion that we're talking about that's already funded. It's already been paid for. No impact whatsoever. Again, this is about staffing and actually how the impact of this is going to actually help the fire department overall. Not just from the apparatus itself, but from a staffing level, from a financial impact of the savings of overtime, the limitations of people being called back. Um, so there's greater things that are happening here, not just overall the truck itself. So, I just want to stress that.

Question for Katie. Katie, Miss Katie, um, can we stipulate or can we amend the resolution that we'll we'll give the 3% for this, but um, I want to what I really want is it written in the resolution, but it's not going to be used for overtime. I mean, I hear Mr. Money Man about, you know, the budget process and we all know how budget process and augmentations go. I would like the ordinance to say that it's not going to be used for any overtime because the whole point of this is to staff those positions on the new ladder truck that's coming and can we do it for 12 months so that we have to revisit it and make sure that we are on the right track.

Yes, Vice Mayor, you can go ahead and make the motion with those changes incorporated into that resolution. Issues that are No. Okay. Can Are you ready for a motion? I think you guys want to talk. Oh, you want to talk? I'm sorry. I don't want to put I do. Can I speak as well? Yeah. Sorry.

So, when I sat here making the deciding voice of what we were going to do with TFD or MFD or compilation, I specifically said we didn't have the money financially. We already or that day we had ordered the ladder truck, which is going to take up to 48 months. So financially we have to come up with somewhere around 9 to 13 bodies and a lot of other things that go with that to get them for staffing so that when it's here we become Turlock Fire Department. So at this point after already setting the table for the the ladder truck here we are saying yeah we'll do this we we're this is our goal to get there but nothing happens overnight. And I would just say that I would love to have the ability to have these conversations with our union and not have such adversarial discussions. This can't be accomplished in one fell swoop. Financially, we can't do that. I don't know if you guys heard, but the economy is not that great. So, we're doing the best we can that we will be successful when we finally get everything in line. So, those are my values. Go ahead. Motion to approve with the amendment that there's no overtime to be paid out of this additional 3% and that we revisit this year you in 12 months.

Second. We have a motion in a second. Call the role. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Mess. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Bublack. Yes. Thank you. 5 Z. Thank you. All right. Moving on. Council comments and announcements and future items. Council member. No. Councelor Bissell. No. Yes. You got

So, um I got hit with a lot of feedback and um I'll say panic from uh the public regarding Saturday's meeting and the accusation that our meeting was illegal. Um and I just want to make sure that the public is clear. Our meeting on Saturday was not illegal. Um everything was posted. Everything was in line. There is an email list in addition to uh the postings that the that the city puts out in order to announce a regular meeting or a special meeting. There is an email list that there are certain people on. That list is a courtesy. The Brown Act requires that our city clerk post the meeting. If somebody didn't get a courtesy email, that does not make the meeting illegal. However, I do believe, Madame Clerk, after she got pelted on Saturday, did get confirmation that all of our emails that are a courtesy did in fact go out. So, Madame Clerk, I apologize to you. You are not an elected official. You didn't sign up to be attacked by the public and I'm very sorry that that happened for you. Um, I just want to remind everybody at home, anybody can get up and it happens all the time. you speak in public comment, lots of things come out in public comment that are not true, that are simply are not factual or they are just downright inaccurate. Um, which brings me to my next point. The fire department, Chief Jeleneck, for those people that don't know, we had a structure fire breakout just before the council meeting started this evening. It turned into a two alarm fire. It was in the middle of a senior citizen living project here in town. Um, for those of you also who don't know, on any given

one shift, we have 13 full-time firefighters on duty. Today for the two alarm fire that we had, our horrible fire chief from Modesto brought us an additional 18 firefighters from outside of Turlock to supplement our 13 firefighters that were on duty for a two alarm structure fire. So I'm confident that all those senior citizens that live around this two alarm structure fire are very thankful and appreciative of the fire service that they got from our Modesto fire chief today. Thank you. Last thing I want to say, it is National Police Week. Thank you to every law enforcement officer that puts on a uniform and makes themsel a target for a bullet every day that they do this job. I appreciate each and every one of you. I also appreciate our district attorney, Jeff Legerro, and his deputy DA, Patrick Hogan, who did a beautiful presentation out at Lakewood Memorial for peace officer Memorial Day last week. It was it was very beautiful. Thank you all for what you do every day. Uh just to capitalize on the uh memorial for law enforcement. Uh I go every year. It's it's my profession. And um right now there is HR 309 that is sitting with the speaker hopefully that will actually make a museum in DC for law enforcement. So I hopefully that passes but that's super uh near and dear to my heart. Uh the 58th annual Assyrian convention is on May 22nd through the 25th. Super excited to attend that. It's going to be a lot of people in our community bringing uh money. And finally, uh Mr. Hampton, uh can you please work with your staff because I can't get enough like leeway away from people. It's all about race communications. We are not we're not holding them accountable. People keep coming back to us. So, if we

need to find another way to do this, whether it's using our our legal or even trying to work with the uh the electeds Senate and assembly, anything you can do, this is getting ridiculous and they don't care. It it's abundantly clear that they don't care about our community and we don't have much control. So, if you could do that, would really appreciate it. And we have close session.

Yes, we have 13A, Conference of Labor Negotiators, California Government Code 549576A. Agency designated representative interim city manager Gary Hampton and employee organization Turlock Associated Police Officers. B threat to public facilities California government code 54957A consultation with city attorney Katie Lucesy. And C public employee appointment California Governor code 54957B1 title city manager discussion only.

All right, we will uh report out should there be something. If not, have a safe evening. Okay.

Thumbs up. Come on, man. Come on, George.

All right. And we are back. Yeah. And we have nothing to report out.